Author Archives: Michael Guise

Tavon Young selected by Ravens

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Former defensive back Tavon Young was selected in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday.

Young was the sixth pick of the fourth round and No.104 overall.

Last season, Young totaled seven pass defensed and 41 total tackles in 11 games after setting career-highs in interceptions and passes defended as a junior with nine and four, respectively.

The Oxon Hill, Maryland native was an American Athletic Conference honorable mention selection as a junior.

Young, who is the 64th football player to be drafted into the NFL in the program’s history, is the first Owl to be drafted since 2012.

Owls open conference tournament play Saturday

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Temple, the No. 3 seed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, will face Tulsa Saturday at 8 p.m. on ESPN3 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut in the tournament quarterfinals.

The Owls (19-10, 13-5 The American) are looking to secure their first bid for the NCAA Tournament since the 2010-11 season after a semifinal finish at the Women’s National Invitational Tournament in 2015.

Temple comes into the conference tournament with a Ratings Percentage Index of 66, which is third highest in The American.

The squad owns two wins against Top-25 RPI teams, South Florida and the University of Florida. The Owls also have a win against Villanova, No. 46 in the RPI. Coach Tonya Cardoza’s team is 3-5 against Top-50 RPI opponents.

Temple’s offense is led by sophomore guard Alliya Butts, a first-team all-conference selection, and junior guard Feyonda Fitzgerald, who earned second-team honors.

Butts is averaging 15.5 points per game, which ranks fifth in The American, while Fitzgerald is averaging 13.2 points per game and is second in the conference, averaging 5.4 assists per game.

Fitzgerald has had 157 total assists this season, the fourth most by and Owls in a single season. The 5-foot-7 guard is eight assists away from totaling the second most assists in a season in program history.

Senior guard Erica Covile, who scored her 1000th point in a 78-64 victory against Houston on Feb. 29, has had eight double-doubles this season and has started every game for the Owls.

Temple has outscored its opponents by 6.7 point per game this season, which is second in The American. The Owls rank third in the American with 70.4 points per game.

With a victory on Saturday, the Owls will earn back-to-back 20 win seasons, and will face the winner of South Florida, No. 20 in the AP Top 25 Poll, and Southern Methodist on Sunday.

Mark McCormick can be reached at mark.mccormick@temple.edu or on Twitter @MarkJMcCormick.

Former AD Bradshaw hired at La Salle

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Former Temple Athletic Director Bill Bradshaw is the new interim director of intercollegiate athletics and recreation at La Salle, the school announce Monday.

Bradshaw will assume the position on March 9 after the school announced current Athletic Director Tom Brennan would step down from the position at the end of the basketball season.

Currently an an intercollegiate athletics consultant with Lauer, Sbarbaro Associates/EMA Partners International, Bradshaw was the athletic director at Temple from 2002-13.
Bradshaw also served as La Salle’s athletic director from 1978-86. He then moved to the same position at DePaul University from 1986-02.

Under Bradshaw lead at Temple, the football team went to two bowl games. The team’s appearance in the 2009 EagleBank Bowl was its first appearance since 1979. The football team also received a $10 million upgrade with a 15,000-square-foot expansion in 2012 to Edberg-Olson Hall.

Bradshaw was also responsible for the hiring of men’s basketball coach Fran Dunphy, who has led the team to six NCAA Men’s Division I Tournament appearances.

Bradshaw was part of the negotiations that led to the announcement that most of Temple’s sports would be competing in the Big East Conference in 2012. After the folding of the Big East in 2013, the Owls became a member of the American Athletic Conference.

La Salle announced that a search permanent athletic director will come at a later date.

Report: Satterfield to become head coach at Tennessee Tech

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Marcus Satterfield will be the the new head coach at Tennessee Tech University, according to a report from FootballScoop.com.

Tennessee Tech, who competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference.

Former coach Watson Brown retired Nov. 2 after coaching the Golden Eagles for the last nine years. Under Brown, Tennessee Tech compiled a 42-60 overall record and won the Ohio Valley Conference title in 2006, its first in 36 years.

Satterfield joined Temple’s staff in 2013 as the team’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. With Satterfield at the helm, the Owls averaged 399 yards of total offense per game in 2013, the highest total during his three years as Temple’s offensive coordinator.

In 2015, the Owls won 10 games for the second time in school history and averaged 366.7 yards per game.

Before joining coach Matt Rhule’s staff at Temple, Satterfield served as the offensive coordinator at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga from 2009-12.

Satterfield began coaching in 2006 at the University of Tennessee-Martin as the offensive coordinator.  In 2008, he was named the team’s associate head coach and passing game coordinator.

Blanca Fernandez wins third race of year

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Blanca Fernandez won Paul Short Run Friday with a time of 20 minutes, 27 seconds.

It was the Leon, Spain natives first 6K race win and third win in three races this season.

Fernandez, who defeated Connecticut’s Emily Durgin by two seconds, won the 4K Big 5 Invitational Sept. 11 and the Main Line Invitational Sept. 18

As a team, the Owls finished 29th out of 35 teams.

Sophomore Katie Pinson finished in 77th with a time of 21:50, topping her previous personal best time of 22:15 from last year’s NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship.

The other five Owls finished outside the Top 200.

Papal visit cancels City 6 Tournament

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The City 6 Tournament was put on hold this season because of  Pope Francis’s visit to Philadelphia Sept. 26-27.

The tournament was held last season at the Class of 1923 Arena at the University of Pennsylvania and featured Temple, Villanova, La Salle, Drexel, St. Josephs and Penn. 

“I feel like that is out of our hands,” junior defenseman Aron Litostanski said. “I would like to play in this tournament, especially with a bunch of these teams. Last year we played Drexel and Villanova and we were doing good and it would be a good early season test to see where we stand.”

Instead of playing in the tournament, the Owls will host Drexel Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. and Villanova Sept. 27 at Hatfield Ice Arena in Colmar, Pennsylvania.

“No offense to the teams that dropped out, but they weren’t the stronger teams,” junior forward Matt Krulikowski said. “The best teams will still be playing. It will be kind of much of the same. We are still getting two strong games on the weekend, so can’t really ask for much more than that.”

Last season at the City 6 Tournament, Temple defeated La Salle 8-0 and Villanova 4-3 in overtime.The Owls were defeated in the championship game by Drexel, 2-1.

Temple was awarded a bye in this year’s contest, but that advantage will have to wait until next year.

“It was just one of those games, but the rest of the weekend was real good,” Krulikowski said. “We took a lot from it. We came together as a team. It wasn’t about ourselves. We’re hoping to do the same thing this weekend. [We want to get] a good jump-start to the season and keep rolling from there. We have Pittsburg the weekend after, so we really have to put it together this weekend and be ready to go for Pittsburg. “

Shutout in preseason

The Owls faced off with Delaware Sept. 18 in their lone preseason game and were shutout 4-0 at Fred Rust Arena.

The Blue Hens tallied two goals in the first period and added two more in the second period. Delaware outshot the Owls for the game 50-25.

“I thought we had a couple good chances to put some pucks in the back of the net, so we are making some adjustments with line combinations, kind of seeing who is going to play good with each other,” head coach Roman Bussetti said. “We made some good adjustments during the game and we got some more ideas from this week at practice going into Friday.”

University announces staff promotions

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The university announced the promotion of seven staff members Tuesday.

Former Director of Football Operations Sean Padden and Lee Roberts, who served as the assistant athletics director, were both promoted to the athletic department’s senior staff.

“My philosophy has always been to reward good people and promote from within whenever possible,” Athletic Director Pat Kraft said in a university-issued statement. “So I am extremely happy to be able to do that with these key individuals.”

Padden has been promoted to associate athletic director/chief of staff, where he will have varsity sport oversight of football and work with Kraft on various projects.

Roberts, the new associate athletics director for facilities and event management, will oversee the maintenance and upkeep of the university’s athletic facilities and game operations of all athletic events.

Denise Fitzpatrick, Bryan Kulp, Quinton Smith, Morgyn Seigfried and Scott Wallace were the other five staff members promoted.

Anderson ruled eligible to play

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Robby Anderson has been ruled eligible to play this season.

The wide receiver successfully completed his summer classes at the university and will be listed as a redshirt senior.

Anderson re-enrolled at the university in June after being dismissed for academic reasons in 2013.

As a redshirt sophomore, Anderson caught 44 passes for 791 and nine touchdowns.

The Fort Lauderdale, Florida native, who began his career at Temple in 2011 as a defensive back, redshirted his first year on campus and was later converted to wide receiver during his sophomore year. The 6-foot-3 inch receiver averaged 79 yards receiving per game and totaled 1,037 all-purpose yards in 2013.

Anderson is the second Owl to receive a waiver this month. Wide receiver Adonis Jennings successfully petitioned the NCAA for a waiver and was ruled eligible on July 29.

Jesse Morgan invited to Utah Jazz summer league

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Jesse Morgan will play for the Utah Jazz in the the Utah Jazz Summer League.

The former Owls’ guard averaged 11.9 points per game last season and knocked down a team-high 68 3-pointers.

The Philadelphia, Pennsylvania native sat out the 2013-2014 season due to NCAA transfer rules after transferring from the University of Massachusetts.

Morgan played his first game as an Owl on Dec. 18, 2014 against the University of Delaware, scoring 16 points on 6 of 16 shooting, including 4 of 8 on three-point field goals.

Morgan played high school basketball at Olney High School in Philadelphia and was a first team All-City selection.

The league, which runs from July 6 to 9, will include summer league teams from the San Antonio Spurs, Boston Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers.

Morgan joins his former teammate, Will Cummings — who agreed to terms on a free agent contract with the Houston Rockets on June 26 — in the pursuit of making an NBA roster. The Rockets will be participating in the Las Vegas Summer league, which begins on July 10.

Owls land new coach

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The Owls announced Monday that Roman Bussetti is set to become their new coach, replacing Ryan Frain — who resigned in April.

Bussetti, who is the general manager of the Owls’ home rink, Flyers Skate Zone, already has great knowledge about the program.

“He has seen our team play before,” defenseman and team president Patrick Hanrahan said. “He has coached for years on multiple teams. This is his first time coaching at college though. We know he knows the game and we look forward to putting him behind the bench next year.”

Bussetti played hockey with Council Rock High School from 1989 to 1991, where he won a Flyers Cup and a state championship. He went on to play collegiate hockey at the University of New Hampshire from 1991 to 1993 and West Chester University from 1993 to 1995.

After a two-year hiatus, Bussetti returned to hockey in 1997  as the coach at Upper Darby High School. He would later go on to coach at West Chester East High School from 1999 to 2006, Council Rock High School South from 2006 to 2008 and Archbishop Ryan High School from 2008 to 2011.

He was also an assistant coach for Blazers Youth Hockey, Team Comcast and the Philadelphia Junior Flyers.

A panel of Hanrahan, defenseman Jason Lombardi, alumnus Greg Malinowski, general manager Jerry Roberts and Campus Recreation unanimously agreed on Bussetti taking over the team. The factors were Bussetti’s experience, conduct, and his innovativeness toward some of the team’s past problems.

“I think it was just overall his knowledge,” Hanrahan said. “And where we felt like his commitment level would be there.”